Life In Yosemite» Anniversary Vacation – Mt Tyndall | Life In Yosemite

Anniversary Vacation – Mt Tyndall

Theresa — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:36:55 +0000

Celebrating our Anniversary atop Mt Tyndall

I promised myself that this is the very week that I would (finally) put something on this blog about the vacation that Tom and I took the week of Aug. 10th for our 11th wedding anniversary. We’d tossed around some other ideas, and we may have even gone to Hawaii if we’d planned ahead a little further (for people that know us, the beach vacation is a radical departure from our typical vacation mindset). It turned out that a shorter vacation to the East Side of the Sierra was absolutely perfect. Our trip had three parts. We had time to finish up some projects ahead of time so that they weren’t hanging over hour heads for the vacation, and then hiked to the top of Mt. Tyndall, wandered slowly through the Bristlecone Pine Forrest, and climbed in Clark Canyon.

Mt. Tyndall tops out at 14,018, making it just barefly one of the 15 mountains in California over 14,000 feet. Having never been to the top of one, I was nervous about my level of fitness. True, it’s a hiker’s summit, meaning that no technical climbing is involved, but in terms of measuring my recovery, it’s nice to hit some concrete fitness milestones, and a 14er certainly counts there. It’s also a beautiful hike. We were lucky enough to have the advice of a friend who, in spite of a somewhat harrowing experience personally on the top of his particular mountain, recommended it to us.

Theresa with Mt. Tyndall in the background

We got a bit of a late start, leaving the parking lot at 12:30pm in the considerable heat of the day. Fortunately, the trail sticks relatively close to Symmes Creek to start out (crossing it 4 times) and broke up the hot and dusty trail with a bit of cool shade and greenery before we hit the 50+ switchbacks that leads up to Anvil Camp. (We heard 56, but looking around the internet, there seem to be a lot of different numbers out there.) Switchbacks are awesome – we climbed slowly but steadily up into the mountains, over terrain that would have been much too steep if we’d tackled it straight on. But my legs still aren’t as strong as I think that they ought to be, and as the day wore on, I started worrying about how tired they were, and whether I’d be too sore and/or too slow to make it to the summit the following day. I’m not a graceful worrier, especially when you mix worry in with disappointment and frustration, but Tom, with more than 11 years of experience, weathered the storm bravely. We cooked up a bit of dinner at Anvil Camp around 6:30, and then almost immediately, just before Pothole, came across a nice flat camping area and decided to spend the night.

The next morning, we left our overnight gear in place, and Tom wordlessly stuffed most of what we would need for the day into his pack, leaving me with a blessedly light pack. The steep grade to Shepherd’s Pass seems intimidating, but even at my relatively slow pace, we managed to get to Shepherd’s Pass about an hour after leaving camp. Tom would have been there much faster, but we cleverly arranged for him to carry the camera so that he could entertain himself by stopping to take pictures, and so match my pace.

Pika! My first true sighting.

Mt. Tyndall is too blocky to fire the imagination of a rock climber, but for me, working on my nervousness about boulder fields, it held its own challenge. From Shepherd’s Pass, the North Rib looks much steeper than the NW Ridge, but I’d read online somewhere that it was more solid. On the ascent, we crossed over onto steep slabs on the left side of the Rib, which although steep were wonderfully solid. On the descent, we found a well-worn trail to the right of the rib, that seemed less steep, and was also quite stable.

We made it to the summit at around 11:30, and had it to ourselves. The views from the tippy top of mountains is exquisite. We lounged there for a while under clear blue skies, read and signed the summit register, had a bit to eat, took our summit photos, and a short nap. More food and napping was in order when we returned to the lake close to the Pass, and we still made it down in time to relax for a while (more napping) before dinner.

At first glance, the high mountains seem like a harsh and barren place, all rock and no life, so I was surprised at the number of wildflowers that we saw up above Shepherd’s Pass. As we descended from Mt. Tyndall, Tom stopped several times to take pictures of the Alpine Gold, and we remarked on several plants that seem to have been dug up for food. As we hiked down from our campsite on the third day, we chatted briefly with a guy who had been up at Shepherd’s Pass doing a mammal survey. They’d seen pikas, 2 kinds of squirrels and a many many marmots. Life is amazing.

McCabe Lake and Sheep Peak from Tuolumne Meadows

Theresa — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 05:24:33 +0000

Tom at the summit of Sheep Peakwith Mt. Conness in the background

What do you see if you walk the 6-ish miles into Glen Aulin, and then instead of taking the popular trail down toward Water Wheel and the Grand Canyon of the Tuolumne, you turn right along the PCT and walk in that direction for a while? The Yosemite scenery is beautiful, but it’s the lure of exploration and new places that draws me in. Tom was also excited about the peaks at the far end.

About 13 miles along the PCT, passing Glen Aulin along the way, we turned right and headed up to McCabe Lakes and hiked to the top of Sheep Peak, a mostly indescript, not quite 12K ft peak (11842 ft.), that nevertheless was a grand adventure, with a spectacular view. We took many pictures with Mt Conness in the background, and tried some panoramas with our small point and shoot. It’s hard to capture sweeping 360 views in a single frame.

The Trail

Theresa hiking the ridge to Sheep Peak

~6 miles to Glen Aulin High Sierra Camp (past Soda Springs and some great scenery along the Tuolumne River. This section is a popular trail, and there were many people hiking with us.

~7 miles before the PCT branches left, and we head right to McCabe Lakes. This section of the trail is mostly flat and winds through Lodgepole forest, and a long beautiful open meadow that made us think about the shepherds that illegally grazed their flocks here before rangers escorted them to the boundary of the park, while escorting their sheep to the opposite boundary. When we stopped for a bite to eat, we saw a lone PCT through-hiker. People stop at Glen Aulin.

Tom looking out from our breakfast spot

The trail to McCabe Lake is listed as 1.5 miles on the map, but 2 miles on the trail sign. It starts out pretty flat, but then climbs up to beautiful alpine lakes below Sheep Peak. It’s after the trail starts to climb, that you see beautiful braided streams, and cascades from the outflow.

I’m not sure how far it is from McCabe Lake to the summit of Sheep Peak. Not far, but there is a nice elevation gain of roughly 2000 feet over steep talus. After my little scare on Horse Ridge a few weeks ago, I don’t really trust my perceptions on things like this, but Tom says that it was “lots” steeper than Horse Ridge. I had been nervous about it before hand, but although I still spent a lot of time imagining the rocks above me coming loose and rolling down on me, it seemed quite manageable. Progress!

Other notes

Breakfast by the river near Glen Aulin

We stopped for the night just before getting to a beautiful ridge that would have been excellent camping. Not a long hike from water, and some relief from the ubiquitous mosquitoes. (I marked it on the map.) There were some sheltered sandy spots that would have been fantastic bivy sites, although we’d have been hard pressed to set up the Double Rainbow tarp tent there without hiking poles.

Tom saw another Pika that I didn’t see. Some people have all the luck.

On the second day, we saw exactly 0 people. Bliss.

At one point, sitting up high on Sheep Peak and looking around us, Tom turned to me and said, “Oh, this is why we like going up to high places.” It’s been too long.

Virginia Canyon looks amazing – and quiet (a theme). It’s a longer drive, but a shorter hike in from the Virigina Lakes Trail Head on the East Side. The planning wheels have been set in motion.

Alpine Gold wildflowers on Sheep Peak

Yes the mosquitoes were everywhere. Long pants, long sleeves, a head net and just a few well-placed squirts of insect repellent, kept them pretty manageable. Although I sometimes miss shorts, I love my nylon hiking shirt. Sun protection, insect protection, and I almost feel like it keeps me cooler than when my skin is baking in the sun.

On the next trip, I’m going to carry hiking poles and see how that goes. There are pluses and minuses to everything.

Ostrander Backpacking Trip

Theresa — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 05:20:14 +0000

Tom among the wildflowers

We took a somewhat abbreviated backpacking trip out past Ostrander Lake June 25-27 to try out some of our new gear. The short version? We love it, and we had a great time. I also learned and re-learned a lot of stuff about backpacking. For a first trip, it was just right.

We left Thursday night around 9pm after getting off work and cooking up a yummy dinner the comfort of our own home, and hiked out to Horizon Ridge before setting up camp. In some ways I like hiking in the dark – it’s usually very quiet and peaceful. Plus, this was an out and back trip, so we got to see the scenery, and the flowers that we walked past in the dark on our way out.

The Double Rainbow Tarptent on Horizon Ridge

In the morning we finished our somewhat circuitous route to Ostrander Lake, and circled around to walk along Horse Ridge. It was a lazy day, filled with many stops and a bit of napping. We had plenty of water so we camped high with a bit of a breeze and fewer mosquitoes, filling up when we hiked down in the morning.

For more random notes about our trip, in no particular order
• Quick Oats are a good breakfast alternative for me. More convenient than regular oats, but tastier than the instant oatmeal packets. – even if you do forget the raisins that you bought especially for the occasion. We were able to cook the oats in our Orikasa bowls just by pouring boiling water over them and waiting for a while.
• The Caldera Keg performed brilliantly, but goes through alcohol faster than I had thought. For longer trips, it would be nice to have a second bottle. Also, I’m now eager to try out the Ti-Tri. Although it’s heavier and less space-efficient than the Caldera Keg, I think having the non-stick pot increases our options in a nice way, and Tom tells me that he thinks that it is more efficient than the CK, which would also help the alcohol last a little longer.
• We didn’t break out the Esbit, but we carried three blocks and the Gram Cracker stove. At just over 2 oz. it was more than worth the peace of mind when we were recalculating the amount of alcohol that we brought.

Skunky Monkeyflower - huge yellow patches of these flowers on Horizon Ridge

• Our new Double Rainbow tent rocks for fair-weather Sierra camping. I’d still like to pitch it in the yard and subject it to a bit of water from the hose to see how it would take a solid rain, though.
• My legs are at a whole new, previously inconceivable level of out-of-shape. Planning to change that.
• It was a good trip for violets. It’s always been a slight irritation that the violets that we see are yellow, instead of purple, and we were delighted to see violet violets on the Ostrander Trail – Western Dog Violets (Viola adunca). We also saw a white Macloskey’s Violet (Viola macloskeyi) in Summit Meadow where the Camas Lilies (Camassia quamash), and some kind of Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon) are blanketing the meadow in color.
• I am surprisingly afraid of talus slopes. I hadn’t expected that. But a hug and a good cry can get me over the hump.
• I was slightly too hot in the Marmot Hydrogen sleeping bag – with a thin pair of thermal pants on and a down jacket. The night before, Tom was a bit cold with the same set-up. More testing is needed.

Climbing up to Horse Ridge - notice all the lichen on the boulders. Very stable.

• Although we CAN stuff everything we need for a weekend trip into a 33L and 30L pack, we shouldn’t. They don’t carry well that way.
• The Asian Curry freeze-dried meal is actually too spicy for me and should be mixed with some couscous or something to make it palatable. Tom and I shared a single bag, and I couldn’t even finish my half. Fortunately, we weren’t out for very long, and face it, these days I can more than afford to be a little calorically deprived for a few hours. It does make me nervous about the Spicy Lousianna Red Beans and Rice meal though. Since when have freeze-dried meals gotten TOO flavorful?
• I think the somewhat raucous gray birds that were hanging out at the top of Horse Ridge were Clarks Nutcrackers. Bold, noisy, and social, they were fascinating to watch.
• Always carry a monocular/binocular. It would have come in handy so many times on this trip.

Phil the Adventure Duck swimming in Ostrander Lake	Tom on Horse Ridge. He saw a glipse of a Pika up here.
Curious Marmot who checked us out during breakfast, and left to have some breakfast of his own.	Maclosky's Violet in a Camas Lily-filled Summit Meadow on the return drive.

Big Weekend

Theresa — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:56:10 +0000

Tom and I have just gotten back from our weekend adventures, put the groceries in the pantry and refrigerator, and wolfed a bit of the fancy artesian bread we can’t get here with extra cheese and olives. It’s been a long and very full weekend.

I took the day off on Friday for my birthday (Saturday), and Tom and I left Thursday night after work for a quick backpacking trip. We saw many things, had great adventures, and hiked out Saturday morning.

Saturday afternoon we drove into the Bay Area for a friend’s memorial service on Sunday. We talked about goal-setting, and listened to the first bit of Unaccustomed Earth on the drive. That evening, our friends who graciously opened their house to us, treated me/us to a birthday dinner at Plearn, a local Thai restaurant. Really delicious non-European food and the good company of friends is such a treat.

The service on Sunday was beautiful, and touching. The stories celebrating such a remarkable man went on and on. I’m still processing – and just remembering.

Afterwards, we picked up a bed frame at Ikea that we had been eyeing for some time, and then drove to San Jose to meet up with Tom’s family, pick up the car we’d lent, and eat some pizza at a place nearby, Amicis, that serves gluten-free, and vegan options.

Monday morning, we had brunch with yet another friend before making the long drive back to Yosemite, pausing for a bear jam along the way.

I’m back on a frequent-post kick, so expect to hear more detailed stories unfold over the next few days. I’ve had a lot to think about.

Backpacking and Hiking

Theresa — Sat, 23 May 2009 06:25:07 +0000

Tom demonstrating the Anti-Ray Way in 2005

I’ve been thinking about backpacking lately. A lot. And I’ve been spending inordinate amounts of money on it too – or preparing to spend inordinate amounts of money anyway.

As it turns out, it has been a embarrassingly long time since I’ve gone backpacking, and I’ve just realized how much I miss it. It isn’t that we haven’t been getting out at all. Last summer we were pretty excited about getting into some longer runs, and we started getting a little more serious about collecting pictures, but as activities that take only part of a day, we were getting pretty comfortable returning home to the miracle of modern appliances, hot showers and a comfortable bed. No longer.

This winter, we thought it might be fun to ski out to Sentinel Dome to try to catch the light from the Horsetail Fall Firefall from the rim, far from the zoo-like scenes in the Valley. We cooked up a plan to ski out and camp – maybe with a plastic sled for some backcountry sledding the following morning, and then realized that our camping gear was in utter disarray. It would take days to find all our stuff, and Tom thought that some of our old stainless steel camping pots had been co-opted into impromptu lacquer containers when he was in a hurry to get the kitchen cabinets lacquered. Snow camping in February isn’t really the time to try to figure out your system again – the consequences for forgetting things is a bit more serious than in August in the Sierra. That, combined with the storm that rolled in over the days that we had set aside for the venture convinced us to stay home instead.

But the seed that was planted, started to sprout again as the weather got warmer, and Tom and I started to dig through our old equipment and began thinking about upgrades. So far?

Calipidder’s review of bear cans convinced us that the BareBoxer bear canister is the best (cheap) option for the short weekender trips that we will take most of the time. Small enough to fit more easily into our smaller packs, and lighter than our big clunky Garcias.

Gear Time with a neighbor, whose closet is so much more interesting than your average REI showroom, led to: New 1.3L Titanium pot from EverNew. New origami bowls from Orikaso, and a Caldera Keg stove – the amazing 3oz alcohol stove by TrailDesigns – a present from Neighborhood Gear Guy.

We also got a try before you buy deal on a DoubleRainbow TarpTent. Set it up in the backyard and slept outside for an evening. Boy did that get the I-want-to-go-backpacking bug going! We pitched it in semi-darkness, using the back porch lights instead of headlamps, so I’m not sure we really have that dialed yet, but even so decided that it was a great tent for the Sierra. Maybe I’ll talk more about it later. This is in definite purchase territory.

PS. Camping in your backyard is pretty cool. All the advantages of car camping – except you have a house full of stuff to choose from, and the kitchen sink – literally. The dishwasher too.

Plus, we are also re-evaluating our sleeping pad situation. The backyard camping test included a trial of the Women’s Pro thermarest which I found surprisingly comfy for sleeping on the ground, and unsurprisingly less comfy than my bed. Since I have the luxury, I may try a few other options before making a final decision on that one.

In the category of Other Really Cool Things, that we’re probably not going to get right away: the MÜv Aquastar UV water purifier – light weight, good for clean Sierra water, and the recharging system rocks. The PolyCryo ground cloth from Gossamer Gear is also amazingly light and packable, and although it’s only $8 for two, the shipping more than doubles the cost. Think we might stick with the rolls of 6mm poly or the extra Tyvek we have around from house building. At least for now. Lastly, kind of a cool modular sleeping pad system from MontBell is worth a mention, but ultimately not thick and comfy enough for us.